HALF ART
CHRIS THURMAN: Broken heart most often not enough to make art
There are risks attached to transforming ‘pain into art’, writes Chris Thurman
Take "your broken heart, make it into art". Thus, in a voice croaking with emotion (and, as she put it, after too much "screaming and lamentation" at the weekend), Meryl Streep closed her speech accepting the Cecil B De Mille Award at the Golden Globes earlier this week. She was quoting her late friend Carrie Fisher, who could attest both to the broken heart – after a lifetime of battling bipolar disorder and drug addiction – and to the art: Fisher was more than just Princess Leia of Star Wars fame, and had a substantial repertoire not only as an actress but also as a screenwriter. There are risks attached to this advice, however, and it should be accompanied by the caveat that a broken heart is not enough in itself to make art. As those of us who channelled our adolescent angst into bad poetry, clunky musical compositions or paltry paintings can confirm, while the alchemical process described by Fisher is immensely valuable to aspirant artists, the final product is rarely golden.Pe...
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